Friday, August 8, 2008

Anti Missile System- (AMS) to hit 4, 2d+2 damage, 3DP, 3 sp, 650lbs, $6500, 5 shots, $140, 20 lbs per shot. Loaded cost $7200, loaded weight 750 lbs. Loaded mag $750/115 pounds. Area effect. Must be linked to a ATAD or Computer Gunner and set for a certain speed, firing at anything at that speed or faster. May be fired manually, but to hit is 6. May use no special ammo.

Heavy Anti-Power Plant Rocket (HAPPR)- To hit 9, damage 1d-2, $1700, 2DP, 1sp, 100lbs, 1 shot. Functions identically to the APPR, but has 3 anti-power plant warheads that scatter after the explosive is detonated. Roll three times for damage, and roll 3 times for location if hitting a random area.

Laser Point Defense System (LPDS)- To hit 6, damage 1d-2, $6000, 2DP, 1 sp, 225lbs., area effect, drains 2 power units per shot. May fire up to three times aimed, or may be set on rapid fire, firing in a 1” long cone, similar to a beehive tank gun round, hitting on a each target on a 4 or better, doing only 1 point of damage to each target hit. This use drains 3 power units. The LPDS may not be made pulse.

Point Defense System (PDS) To hit NA, Damage as per Discharger type, 1 DP, $800, 120 lbs, 1 sp, 10 shots, 5lbs/ CPS as per discharger type. The PDS essentially is a plate that folds back in the vehicle and may be loaded with packs similar to dischargers. It may be mounted like any other weapon and while loaded is dealt with as far as targeting like a discharger. May use any discharger type except PDG’s.

Road Bombs (RBmb) To Hit NA, 3d damage (see below), 2DP, 1 sp, $450, 100lbs, 1 shot, Burst effect. Road bombs are very large mines. They use the same counter as mines, and are encountered and detonated in the same fashion, but when they are hit do 3d damage in a 1/2 inch radius, to exposed armor and tires in that area. They have a 1d standard burst radius to everything one inch beyond that. May use proximity fuses. Road Bombs when first dropped can be set with a delay up from 1 phase up to 5 turns. Hitting a road bomb before it is armed is the same as hitting a debris counter.

Vehicular Autoshotgun (VASG)- To hit 6, damage special, 2DP, 2sp, $1600, 140lbs, 6lbs/$30 per shot, 10 shots, loaded cost 200lbs, $2300. Loaded mag, $350, 75lbs. The VASG rolls to hit normally, but hits with d6 shots, each doing 2 hits. At ranges of greater than 10”, subtract 1 from the roll (but never less than one). Treat each shot separately for purposes of damage to armor, but as one big group for purposes of hazard. May use slugs, and slug rounds are not lost due to range. Firing the VASG for cycles, as well as side mounted VASG on trikes and Sub-compacts is a D1 hazard. Area effect.

Armor Piercing Explosive - CPSx3, WPSx2. Maybe used in any weapon that may use HD ammo. APEX ammo does one extra point of damage per 2d (round up) to plastic armor. While it does not do extra damage to metal armor, it does remove one point of metal on any 5 or 6 on the damage die. It doesn’t have an appreciable burst radius, but doesn’t cancel any area effect.

Antipersonnel Grenade Shells- For pedestrian GL’s, GL’s only (no AGLs). Both are giant shotgun shells, and each only has a maximum range of 10”.

Dual Purpose- Lowers to hit roll by 1, does 1d damage, ½ to vehicles and tires.

Hardball (tm) ammo- CPS x2For Shotguns, Dbbl Shotguns, and Vehicular shotguns. Fires three hard plastic balls. No damage to vehicular components or tires, and only does 1 point to pedestrians. Any pedestrian hit is affected as if by a concussion grenade.

Laserproof missiles- Adds 10% to cost and weight of any missile. Missiles so modified are not harmed by laser fire.

Military Grade Explosive Rockets - Weight x1.5, cost x125. Single shot rockets only. Military Grade Explosive Rockets do 3x the listed damage, and may be made laser guided or armor piercing as per normal. MGE Mini-Rockets do 2d+2 dice of damage. May not be used to modify SR’s or UR’s as they both already use MGE.

The AFGL may have different grenade types may be mixed in the magazine but the order of the rounds must be recorded. Rotary magazines can be installed for half cost ($250) and normal weight (10 lbs.) to the AFGL and its magazines. This revision of the AFGL description is meant to correct the errata and implicit rules regarding magazines in the AFGL descriptions given in ADQ 9/2, p.5 and UACFH, p.18.

Improved Tracer Ammo [DSumner]: CPS 2x normal cost, WPS normal. +2 to hit for second consecutive shot, +3 for third consecutive shot. Fire modifier 1; Burn modifier 1. (real life tracer ammo starts fires as it burns, I also don't see why it would do less damage than regular ammo).

Magnetic Pulse Mines: Only available for Spear 1000 Mine Droppers. 1d-1 damage, CPS 150, WPS 10. If an electric power plant is damaged by this weapon (even a single point), the vehicle’s electrical system short-circuits and the power plant immediately looses all power and shuts down. It does not affect internal combustion (IC) engines or independently-powered devices, such as lasers with laser batteries. A short-circuited power plant can be recharged normally.

Smart Mines: 1.5 x the normal CPS, normal weight. Smart Mines are equipped with an IFF system that prevents them from being detonated by the vehicle that dropped them. They are also equipped with safety feature that prevents them from detonating, while the vehicle that dropped them is within the weapon's blast radius. For 2 x the normal cost they can be set to ignore multiple vehicles (i.e. ignore all "Team Foxfire" vehicles, ignore all motorcyles), or set to only detonate for certain types of vehicles.

Sleep Gas Grenade - $100, Creates a colorless, odorless 1” X 1/2” cloud that lasts for 30 seconds. Unprotected pedestrians and cyclists must roll once per turn every turn they are in the cloud. Multiple rolls don’t produce cumulative results – Just apply the worst results rolled so far.

1-2 Character is unconscious for 10 minutes.3-5 Character is unconscious for 5 minutes, and can do nothing for the next 3 minutes.6 Character is -6 to hit with any weapon and can only crawl 3 spaces per turn.

1-3 Character is -2 to hit with any weapon for 1 minute.4-5 Character is -6 to hit with any weapon and can make no HTH attacks for 1 minute.6 Character -6 to hit with any weapon and can only crawl 3 spaces per turn for 30 seconds.

Anti-Personnel Mines (APM): $35. 2d damage to all pedestrians and exposed cyclists in a 2” radius and 1d damage in a 1" radius. 1/2 damage to tires, 1 grenade equivalent.

Bounding Anti-Personnel Mines: $60. 1D6+3 to all pedestrians and exposed cyclists in a 2” burst radius. No damage to vehicles. 1 grenade equivalent. When triggered, Bounding AP Mines fire a small canister of steel ball-bearings into the air. The canister detonates spraying the surrounding area with its contents.

Weapon Light: $50. Adds one grenade equivalent to any weapon it's attached to. Weapons Lights may be used at night, or in any un-lit area, to illuminate targets up to 4” away. When used, they eliminate all nighttime targeting modifiers. Weapon Lights may also be used to blind a target, following the same guidelines as vehicle searchlights. Weapon Lights may be attached to any pistol, rifle, shotgun, sub-machinegun, gyroslugger, or SAW.

Laser Guided Bombs: $500 for electronics and laser tuning, plus $250 per guided bomb; no weight or space. LGL may be used with regular Bombs, Cluster Bombs, and Napalm. Laser Guided Bombs follow the same basic targeting rules as laser guided missiles.

DROPPED SOLIDS

Acid Mines (AM): CPS 75, WPS 5. Any vehicle detonating an Acid Mine will have its tires and underbody coated with a caustic brew of highly corrosive chemicals, which inflicts 2 hits damage to both the tires and underbody for 1d6 turns.

DROPPED GASES

Acid Cloud Ejector (ACE): 1 hit damage, $750, 50lbs, 1 DP, 2 spaces, 10 Shots, CPS 50, WPS 5, Loaded Cost $1,250 weight 100lbs. Magazine costs $550, weighs 65lbs. When fired an Acid Cloud Ejector creates what appears to be a normal 1" x ½" cloud of paint, that lasts for 3 turns. Any vehicle, or pedestrian, passing through the cloud is coated with a highly corrosive solvent, that will inflict 1 hit to every exposed vehicle component, and armor location, every turn they're in the cloud, and then for an additional 1d6 turns after passing through the cloud.

Special thanks to kjamma4, for letting me use the "ACE" name

DROPPED LIQUIDS

Corrosive Oil: CPS 5x normal, WPS normal. Any standard Oil Jet, Fluid Gun, or Oil Discharger can drop Corrosive Oil. Corrosive Oil can not be mixed with other oil ammunition in the same magazine. A loaded magazine costs $675, weighs 65lbs. Creates what appears to be a standard ½”x1” oil counter. Any vehicle tire coming in contact with any part of the counter suffers 1d-1 damage each turn it’s in contact with the counter.

DEFENSIVE

Laser Inhibiting Aerosol - CPS 2.5x normal, WPS 2x normal weight. Looks and works like a normal smoke screen, but blocks all laser fire. Available for SS, HDSS, and GS.

Exothermic Foam: Fire modifier 2, burn duration 2. CPS 3 x normal. WPS normal. ExoFoam looks and acts just like regular Sticky Foam and can be loaded into any standard Sticky Foam Sprayer or Discharger. Any vehicle coming into contact with the counter will have its tires coated with a chemical gel that causes its tires to heat up, and spontaneously combust. Each full turn a vehicle spends in contact with a Exothermic Foam counter, or each additional 1” of Exothermic Foam crossed, adds an additional burn modifier of 1 to the vehicle’s tires. The chemical's effects begin to dissipate after 10 seconds, with the gel’s burn modifier dropping by “1” for every 3 seconds of time elapsed, after the initial 10 second "burn" until it becomes inert. Pedestrians coming into contact with the foam suffer 1 hit per turn they are in contact with a counter.

From Oliver Bollmann. I marked entries with "@" if they are original game concepts. Oliver performed the logical progression for these existing weapons. As I've said before, some of these I'd like, others are gratuitous, but the best thing about Oliver's work is its consistency and thoroughness.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Before I get down to messing around with the rules and creating new weapons - even after I've paid excessive due diligence with the whole series (1-2-3-4-5) - I should present the ideas that I've seen in other places. If they've done it, likely they did it better, and why reinvent the wheel (almost literally)?

Selected Items from NOVA:

Grenade Dropper: $750, 100 lbs., 2 DP, 1 space, 15 shots, cost by grenade type, 4 lbs. per grenade. Loaded cost is $750 plus cost of grenades, loaded weight 160 lbs. This weapons drops a grenade out the side or rear of the carrying vehicle. This weapon may use a rotary magazine, but the grenade timers must be preset.

Pyramid Spikes: CPS $50, WPS 10 lbs (Loaded magazine $550, 115 lbs). 1d6 to all tires. Cannot be made explosive, incendiary or expanded. Cannot be mixed with other rounds or be used in a spike gun. Pyramid spikes will damage plasticore and solids and are not destroyed when rolled over.

This weapon is a single-barrel autocannon of intermediate caliber (25-mm to 30-mm). 20th-century examples include the 25-mm Bushmaster gun on the Bradley IFV and the 30-mm chaingun on the AH-64 Apache. All types of ammunition are available. Non-oversized vehicles that fire this weapon take a D1 hazard from the recoil.

The super-heavy autocannon is a modern example of the GAU-8 Avenger cannon which armed the A-10 Thunderbolt. The GAU-8 was a seven-barrel 30-mm gun. Alternately, the SHAC could be a single-barrel weapon of large caliber (50-mm or above).

This item drops a 1/2" x 1/2" obstacle each time it is fired. Hitting the obstacle is a D3 hazard for all wheeled ground vehicles (including trucks). Additionally, 1d-3 points of damage are inflicted on each tire

Vehicular Shotgun (variant): To-hit: 7, $950, 90 lbs, 1 space, 2 DP, 1d damage, area effect, 10 shots, CPS: $5, WPS: 1 lb, Loaded Cost: $1,000, Loaded Weight: 100 lbs, maximum range: 24". The VSG is a short-barreled, smoothbore weapon of either 4-gauge or 8-gauge. For every full 4" of range, there is a +1 to-hit bonus and a -1 to the damage rolled. Its low cost and light weight make the VSG a favorite weapon in the lower divisions.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Of all the new weapons I've proposed see the whole series (1-2-3-4-5) the only one that I'm sure is good, necessary, and won't upset game balance, is the Mini Multiple Fire Rocket Pod (MMFRP). I'll use this as the first design challenge to work out game dynamics.The real life model for this weapon is rather common system used on helicopters and attack planes. One example is here (where the first image is from). Many people assumed that the Micro-Missile Launcher is supposed to be this weapon, based on the picture (see to the right, taken from Uncle Al's 2035 guide) and it's misname.The model for the new weapon is the "Six Shooter" - the Multiple Fire Rocket Pod. The original rules set for a Heavy Rocket and the MFRP was like 2 HR's, but different. And, when the MFRP was introduced, so too were mini-rockets, and the MFRP was kinda like 6 of those.

For some reason, the MFR allows a greater blast radius, but it can't accept special munitions. The MnR is lighter than the MFR, but less damage. 2 (linked) HR is the same price as the MFR, but heavier, yet can be fitted with special munitions/warhead.

Autoduel Quarterly was, for 10 years and 40 issues, the official magazine for Car Wars. Then Steve Jackson games folded it into Pyramid (which is still published), and Car Wars articles became quite scarce.

Somehow, depsite that they are sold in PDF form, Steve Jackson Games allowed the ADQs to be HTMLized and placed online. I mean, you can't buy the major rulebooks except for major dinero on ebay, yet the ADQs are free? I won't argue, I'm glad, and I want the good thing to last.

or AC in own family, move VMG into that, add new weapon: minigun, then change HMG into a 2 space weapon

Light and Heavy Recoilless Rifles

Heavy Rocket Launcher (3 space in guided-rocket category)

Mini Multiple Fire Rocket Pod (1 space unguided rocket)

Part 4 of this analysis described the different needs of game balance in general, without specific categories. Based on the earlier posts, and irrespective of the system analysis in part 3, here are the gaps in the offensive weapons:

No 6-accuracy burst weapons outside of Autocannon

related to that: only rockets are one space burst weapons

no 3 space, 7-accuracy weapon

no 3 space, 6-accuracy area effect weapon

very few options with 8-accuracy weapons

Based on comparing the two lists, do the new weapons help or hurt game balance?

Railgun - I admit that I've wanted this weapon in Car Wars ever since I played Quake3, and it would be the 3-space 6-accuracy area-effect weapon (if we keep the Autocannon as burst effect)

Mortars - Part of me wants mortars because doggonit, they exist! And they're useful as small "artillery" weapons. At least they should be available for pedestrians, no? But for cars, they would be a way of adding the small space, low accuracy weapons (with a number of special modifiers given the high-lobbing trajectory of mortar rounds balanced with the purposeful shrapnel damage, which I guess is in every 'burst effect' weapon. This is less than necessary, except as a non-rocket based 9-accuracy weapon.

Howitzers - This would expand the 8-accuracy field away from exclusively rockets. I think it's necessary.

Heavy Vulcan (Modified) - not really necessary, but I like to be thorough.

Minigun - Only necessary if we keep Autocannon in it's own category (i.e. gatling guns). I like it also as a 6-accuracy 1 -space weapon, but that will probably skew the game.

Heavy Machine Gun - I think that the Heavy MG is a rule flaw; 1 space 2 dice weapon?! And a Light Laser is only 1d? Anyway, I think it should be moved up to 2 spaces and rules modified accordingly.

Light & Heavy Recoilless Rifles - I think this is a more necessary fill, for 7-accuracy burst effects (the Blast Cannon should have made this inevitable)

Part 3 of this series (see 1 & 2), came up with new weapon possibilities. But as I described in part 1, and part 4, all these nifty ideas are secondary to the necessities of game balance.

We should elaborate the game balance issue for things beyond straightforward cost/weight/space/damage (because it's not set out clearly in the rulebooks and lists). Here are the special issues:

Area vs. Burst effect

Volatility

Shot Number

Hazards

Benefits

DP (Damage Points)

Area vs. Burst

In the original game, area vs. burst was a nonsense/RPG issue. Unless you were aiming at pedestrians, who cares if the gun is area or burst? In the age of metal armor, it's a big difference (especially with HESH ammo): area weapons strip off metal armor on a 6 on a damage die, burst effect on a 5 or 6. So the fact that there's no 1 space, 7 accuracy, burst effect weapon has ramifications.

Area

all Machine guns & ammo except explosive

FG, VS, GG, all Lasers, all Flamethrowers

Burst

all the following (excepting the special ammo in "neither" below): RR, AC, bombs, BC, GL*, ATG, TG, all rockets, all missiles, all torpedos, depth charges, and mines (MD etc).

Possibly the Cloud Bomb (CBSS) - who knows

Neither

Armor Piercing ammo for all rockets,

HEAT, HESH, APFSDS ammo

Incendiary and/or Volatile Weaponry

Which weapons are "volatile"? There's no list in UACFH, no index entry in the CWC2. The CWC2 (p31) states that your car will catch fire if hit by incendiary weapons - natch - but also if a some weapons are hit by enemy fire (2 in 6 chance), and 4 in 6 chance if those weapons are hit by other volatile weapon. And if a car is on fire, then certain weapons can explode the car. A keyword in making sense of this mess is that some weapons are "incendiary" and some are "volatile" and it's bad to mix the two. All incendiary seem to be also volatile, but not vice-versa.

Incendiary is easy to figure out (either the ammo is called 'incendiary' or there's the word "flame/fire" in the title), but which are the volatiles? Here's the list according to what I can piece together from the CWC2 & UACFH:

Incendiary (and thus Volatile)

Any weapon with incendiary ammo

any flamethrower

Flaming Oil Jets (FOJ, HDFOJ

Flame Cloud Ejectors (FCE, HDFCE, FCGS)

Volatile Without Being Incendiary

Depth Charges (UACFH p.15)

All missiles (SAM, AAM, RGM, WGM etc)

All rockets (MML, RL, HR, MFR, VFRP etc)

All torpedos (whatever)

Anti-Tank Guns & Tank Guns

Rocket boosters & jump jets

Not Volatile But Should Be - Prob. Because of a mistake

Bombs (UACFH doesn't say anything, see p.10-11)

Minedropper ammo (UACFH doesn't say anything, see p.15)

Dischargers of incendiary material (Flaming Oil, Flaming Cloud)

Not Volatile But Should Be - For Game Balance

Any burst effect weapon (e.g. AC, GL, RR, BC) - the reason why not could be the quantity of explosive in a RR round is less than in the ATG. But then the Blast Cannon should definitely be volatile!

Volatility is an issue for three things 1. Setting on fire, 2. getting on fire, and explosion.

Incendiary weapons can set a vehicle ablaze according to certain modifiers (see a chart somewhere), but non-incen. volatile weapons (e.g. ATG) won't do this. Volatile & incendiary weapons (and your power plant), if hit by enemy fire, can set your own car on fire on a 1 or 2 on a d6. If the volatile weapon is hit by an incendiary weapon OR a laser (which is itself not volatile) then your car will catch fire on a 1,2,3,or 4 on a d6.

If a car on fire has a volatile weapon then the car will explode on a 1 on a d6.

Shot Number

This mainly comes into contrast between the Machine Gun family and the rest. Also the Mine Flinger and other defensive weapons, e.g. the Oil Jet vs. Smokescreen (25 or 10). No real need for a chart here (even for my OCD).

Hazards

In this category are detriments from firing the weapon (this could include the danger of housing a volatile weapon, but that's in its own list):

the handling class hazard when firing the ATG,

the power-draining from Lasers and GGs,

Radar guided missiles need a certain distance to be active (and other mishugass)

Wire guided missiles can't be fired while moving

It used to be that Flamethrowers couldn't be fired forward, no longer.

Benefits

This category includes all the extra effects of the weapon beyond causing damage:

Flamethrowers and Lasers are automatically incendiary (no need for special ammunition).

Gauss Guns are silent (whoop-de-doo)

Flamethrowers & FOJ create a smokescreen

FCE & FOJ create a hot-smoke SS

DP

Sometimes it matters that your weapon is sturdy (RR, HMG) or not (RL, Laser). The drop spike plate is a classic example of as close to a possible DP-sink there is.

Conclusion

When seeking to add new weapons, game balance must be preserved in all categories - not only in spaces/weight/cost/damage but in the other factors like DP, volatility, area vs. burst effect, and miscellaneous benefits and hazards.

In part 1 we looked at the basic game setup, part 2 analyzed the game's basic weapon systems, this post will see what can possibly be added and/or changed.

Two websites that have done a similar analysis, and given game proposals, are the friendly killers of NOVA and this article (PDF) by PDF Oliver Bollmann (main site here).

The three problems we came up with from the previous analysis were:

Consolidation of weapon categories (e.g. AC into MG)

Categories without full distribution (e.g. RR, ATG)

Possible missing weapon systems (e.g. mortars).

Problem #1 & 2 can be combined. The simple recommendations are these:

Autocannons be part of the Machine Gun family with the same stats. The 6-accuracy is like the vulcan and the fewer shots (10 from 20) is indicative of the higher rate of fire for the same caliber ammunition. The only change is that the AC should be area effect (like all weapons which depend on making holes in the target as opposed to applying concussive/blast force). This means modifying the HVMG into a legal item, like the "blast cannon".

"Anti-Tank Gun" is a misnomer; everything that can pierce tank armor is anti-tank (grenades, rockets, recoilless rifles). This is just a small artillery piece (as the classic "State of the Art" articles by Sheely & Olnes established). As such, I'd like name this category "howitzers" to distinguish it from the mortars (see below), recoilless rifles, and the bona-fide artillery pieces which aren't allowed in the AADA arena (and are called tank-guns). This category is ripe for scaling-expansion.

"Blast Cannon," like "anti-tank gun," a misnomer for a large-caliber recoilless rifle; this category also needs to be expanded

"Rocket launcher" - as I analyzed here, the Car Wars RL is in fact a rocket-propelled grenade. And, like the ATG & RR, should be scaled to allow greater "caliber"s (in this case, sizes of explosive). Thus "micro-missile launcher" is another misnomer. The basic difference between a missile and a rocket is guidance. As such, the current Car Wars systems of (guided) rocket (MML, RL), (unguided) rocket (HR, MFR), and missile (WGM, RGM, SAM etc), needs to be clarified. My best guess is that an 8-accuracy is a guided small explosive (real world RPG): the warhead is small and the weapon's space in the car is used for aiming and for velocity, 9-accuracy is for a generally unaimed large warhead rocket, and 6 or 7 (the Car Wars "missiles") are for a large warhead with a sophisticated aiming system.

Grenade Launcher - As I griped about here, this has a bad fit within the Car Wars system. I believe it should be collapsed into a large-bore, low velocity, category that includes the shotgun, flachette gun, and mortars.

With all that A new weapons chart could thus like this:

Flamethrowers (Unchanged)

Gauss Guns

1 Space = [not possible; the energy delivery system takes 2 spaces]

2 Space = Gauss Gun (6acc, 3d)

3 Space = Rail Gun (new)

Grenade Launchers

1 Space

Vehicular Shotgun (6acc, 2 hits) - moved,

Flachette Gun (6acc, 1d+1 to tires) - moved,

Light Mortar (new)

2 Space

Grenade Launcher (7acc, 1d*),

Heavy Mortar (new)

3 Space = none [unnecessary because the next tech up is artillery/howitzers]

Howitzers (formerly 'Tank Guns')

1 Space = Light Howitzer (new)

2 Space = Howitzer (new)

3 Space = "Anti-Tank Gun" (Heavy Howitzer) (8acc, 3d)

Lasers (Unchanged)

Machine Guns

1 Space

Light MG (7acc, 1d-1),

MG (7acc, 1d),

Heavy MG (7acc, 2d-2)

2 Space = Vulcan MG (6acc, 2d)

3 Space = Autocannon (6acc, 3d)

4 space = Heavy Vulcan (modified)

Missiles (Unchanged)

Recoilless Rifles

1 Space = Light RR (new)

2 Space = Recoilless Rifle (7acc, 2d)

3 Space = Heavy RR (new)

4 Space = Blast Cannon(7acc, 4d)

Rockets, Guided

1 Space = Micro Missile Launcher (8acc, 1d)

2 Space = Rocket Launcher (8acc, 2d)

3 Space = Heavy Rocket Launcher (new)

Rockets, Unguided [all 9acc]

1 Space

Mini (1d-1),

Light (1d),

Medium (2d),

Heavy (3d)

Mini Rocket Pod (new)

2 Space = MFR (9acc, 6x1d)

3 Space = VFRP (9acc, 1-6d)

Another option is keep the Autocannon in it's own category, split off the Vulcan from the MG, and make a new 3 space scale: 1 space = Minigun, 2 space = Vulcan, 3 space = Autocannon. The machine gun scale would be Light & regular in one space, Heavy in 2, and larger than that impossible for regular cars (recoil etc).

As described in part 1, there are gaps in game-balance for weaponry, specifically in the lower accuracy weapons. As a way of correcting this, we can use the weapon systems as described in UACFH to flesh out the chart. What follows is a weapon system chart to see which components are missing. The chart will list illegal weapons only when necessary, and will be limited to 1-3 spaces as much as possible:

Many other game-wizards, like me, have tried filling in the gaps: here from NOVA (light Gauss Gun and light Recoilless Rifle), here's a very comprehensive list from Oliver Bollmann (PDF, main site here).

Combining my two lists together (i.e. here and this post), we can come to some conclusions:

Consolidation of weapon categories - for example, and Bollman recognizes this as well, the Autocannon is basically part of the Machine Gun family and should be placed there; the Flachette Gun could really just be a Vehicular Shotgun with Flachette loads, and to be honest both of them could be under Grenade Launchers (the same way that the M203 can fire grenades or shot); and the Missile-Rocket category is a huge mess.

Certain categories are populated/distributed well (MG, FT, Laser) and others not (RR, ATG) - despite the true availability of variation within present day weaponry. There's major differences between calibers in Recoilless and regular artillery and that makes a simple scaling system. The best example of how logical this is comes from GURPS Autoduel (see here for the Light RR).

My favorite weapon, and I'm sure almost everyone's, is the Vulcan. And it's not only in Car Wars; I love the real-life electric gatling gun family of weapons. When it was first introduced, it straddled a strange midrange in the weapon chart. The 7 weapons (to hit) were 1 space (MG) and 2 (RR), the 8 weapons were 2 space (RL) and 3 (ATG) and 6 were both 2 space (FT, Laser). Now a machine gun upgrade was introduced and it was 2 spaces but to hit 6. This made sense in terms of gun physics because, hey, many many barrels! But I would have preferred to have filled out the chart first.

Since then the chart has basically been finished, but there are still lacunae. The following is a list of weaponry based on to-hit. Only AADA allowed (and/or non-military) ground-vehicle offensive weaponry is listed. That is, only direct damage dealers (so mine-flingers, while as offensive a defense you can get, are still not part of the analysis)TO HIT 61 space..........Light Laser (1d area incendiary but not volatile)..........Light Flamethrower (1d-1 area incen. & volatile)..........Vehicular Shotgun (2 hits area)..........Flachette Gun (whatever)..........Wire Guided Missile (3d burst volatile)2 space ..........Vulcan (2d area) ..........Flamethrower (1d area incen & volatile)..........Laser (3d area incen not vol.)..........Medium Laser (2d area incen not vol.)..........Twin Laser (2d+6 area incen not vol.)..........Gauss Gun (3d area)3 space ..........Autocannon (3d burst)..........Heavy Duty Flamethrower (2d area incen. & vol.)..........Heavy Laser (4d area incen not vol.)4 space = n/a

What's clear from the list is that most new weapons, with variety, comes from the 6-Accuracy list. As a game-balance purist, I am unhappy with the missing slots. 6-Accuracy is overstocked, 7 is missing a 3-space, 8 could use more options, 9 is fine (there are a lot of rocket options). Also there should be a balance given to shots available (10 or 20) and area vs. burst, volatility and other hazards (handling modifiers), and even weapon DP (see Drop Spike Plate). See this post for an elaboration of these issues.

Another possible imbalance is in weapon systems. According to UACFH, there are these systems (within the analysis parameters above):

Autocannons

Flamethrowers

Gauss Guns

Grenade Launchers

Lasers

Machine Guns

Miscellaneous (VSG, FG)

Missiles

Recoilless Rifles

Rockets (Guided, Unguided)

Tank Guns

Weapon systems may be seen as only an afterthought of game-balance, i.e. when putting the necessary space/weight/damage/cost chart together, the game designers decided to give the weapons some recognizable names - which helps gameplay and fires up player imagination. It may not be necessary to give space ranks to each of the weapon systems.

On the other hand, the official rules already have done the full complement for some of the systems (MG, FT, Laser, Rocket), so there's a logic to finishing the chart. If so, and while resistant, I'm not totally against it, but I'd do so at first only to fill out the first chart.

With the weapon-system analysis - which relies more on real-world technological connection than the Accuracy system (see more on that analysis here) - we can arbitrarily say that certain weapons start at more than 1 space: Tank Gun, Autocannons, etc. However, if the gun is designed right, then why not?

Design Notes- An update of this 2037 design. The original design had a huge engine, a EWP on the roof (facing front) and was armed with a light laser. Since then the rules disallowed even EWPs on roof for subs. I decided to incorporate the EWP + LL - using the space inside for componant armor.

I also found the best aspect of the weapon that I have hitherto eulogized as rule-jockeyed out of relevance: pulsing a LL adds no weight.

The MML options are just to see how much damage a subcompact can veritably dish out.

The obsessive compulsive in me felt that every car in this virtual showroom should have an accompanying photo, but the realist in me recognized that (a) it would take way too long to draw a counter for all the 2037 and/or obsolete cars, and (b) most of the old cars suck and would never be used. Hence I came up with the logo use see to your left.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

As I mentioned here, the pictures in Uncle Al's Catalog O'Hell are amateurish to the point of folly. Whatever happened to the awesome graphics of the original (2035) catalog? Instead of nifty realistic munitions, we get this:I challenge anybody who hasn't seen the picture recently to tell me what the heck that is supposed to be. A watergun? An elephant's trunk?

Design Notes- I had an image of this weapon system in my head this morning, with the subconscious note that it should be div20, and I whipped it together. I'm not so happy with the way it's turned out (to save money I didn't make the CA fireproof and I did steel-belted radials instead of solids), but I wanted to see how it would turn out.

I've decided to design the cars with 8 total dischargers: 2 each Right, Left, and Top & Bottom, then 1 front & back. The top & bottom are going to be hot smoke (when I can afford it) or just smoke; this is laser insurance (hot for IRs).